Half-Blooded | The Dark Child Prophecy Series [✔️]

Chapter 66: Shackles [M]

I woke to the faraway and nearly foreign sensation of hands stroking my hair. The feeling of warm flesh pressed against my lips, tasting of salt and moisture that my own skin couldn't offer. My vampire instincts pressed at me, sensing the beating pulse just millimeters from my fangs. I tried to sit up, but whimpered instead when my body reacted in pain.

"You're okay, sweetheart, you're okay," Jason's voice said from above me and I paused, wincing again as I tried to come back from whatever darkness I had been lost in. "You're okay, you're okay," he repeated. Somehow his words blurred between my six-year-old self and his own voice, as though I was in my old nightmare. "I've got you now, it's over. You need to drink before you lose any more of your strength."

I inhaled a shaky breath through my mouth and the oxygen went down my throat like cold razorblades, coated with the scent of his skin and the warmth it extended. I grasped his other hand where he held me around my bare stomach to keep my body cradled against his torso. My grip tightened as my eyes adjusted to the low light of the basement cells. When I blinked away the hazy film from the drugs, I looked around. Fear still clamped down around my throat, waiting to wake up again in Page's torture chamber.

"See? You're okay," Jason said from behind me. "Drink."

I inhaled again, my tongue tingling with the need to bite.

"Serenity, it's okay. Drink," he said again.

I can't, my mind squeaked.

"Yes, you can. Bite my wrist."

My eyes clenched shut again. Before I could stop myself, my mouth complied with his command as his reassuring dominance pressed against my weak mental walls. I felt my jaws widen enough to find the space just above his wrist. My fangs touched skin and I bit down. I heard Jason grunt quietly. The rush of warmth nearly made me choke as the cold razorblade feeling spiked and then melted away. When the first few droplets of blood welled to the surface and touched my tongue, I tried not to moan. The only sound that left me instead was a soft whimper.

Blood began to pour into my mouth and I swallowed. My hunger heightened and ebbed as I drew him into me.

"There you go, baby," he said, his voice sounding quiet. Or maybe I just couldn't hear him over the sounds of our bodies as our combined pulses beat in my ears. His heartbeat sped up and mine fought to come even with its cadence.

I inhaled again through my nose as I swallowed another gulp. I could feel my body come alive again. My muscles and organs throbbed as they woke up from their state of shock.

Feeling alert and awake again, I pulled back from his wrist and pushed his arm away with my hand. I exhaled, my eyes closing with the effort, and I tried not to feel every injured fiber of my being as the blood rushed to find the worst offenses.

"That's it, sweetheart. Do you feel better?"

I nodded shallowly and I tried to sit up again, grimacing when my neck popped from the movement. Pain shot down my spine and into my ribs. "How long?" I asked when I got my breath back.

"It's been a day, maybe a day-and-a-half," he answered me, his voice still soft and comforting. I felt his arms shift and then heard the sound of fabric ripping. I glanced over my shoulder to see him tying a shred of shirt around his forearm. "Are you okay?"

I felt my stomach from where the first cut had been and then my leg, finding a large chunk of my pants gone and a jagged laceration in its place. I grunted as I tried to sit up fully, scooting my back against the concrete wall. Jason gripped my biceps gently to help support my weight. "I don't know," I answered, my voice hoarse and barely above a whisper. "I hurt," I added truthfully.